Finding a good Chinese restaurant when you're in Hong Kong

Thu, 2006-09-28 14:00 — Mr Tall

If you’re planning to visit Hong Kong, you’ll no doubt run into someone who’s lived here, or you’ll read a guidebook or website, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: you’re going to love all that great Chinese food in HK! It’s the world’s best!!

And that’s likely true. There may be other cities that feature more authentic and consistently delicious versions of their local food, but in Hong Kong you’ll find many excellent restaurants representing all the major Chinese cuisines, and some you likely haven’t even heard of.

And yet – if you return to your guidebooks and websites for actual Hong Kong restaurant recommendations, you’ll see the same few restaurants named again and again. Some of these places deserve their plaudits; many don’t.

Since you’re a smart traveler, you know this. So when you arrive in Hong Kong, you decide you’ll just hit the streets and you’ll be bound to find great places at any point because, hey, just look around! There are restaurants everywhere! And again, yes, there are. But when you start trying to pick one, it can get pretty confusing, and for some of us, maybe a bit intimidating. Will the place on the corner have an English menu? It’s already 7:00 pm, and it’s only half full – does that mean it’s a lousy place? And so on.

So the Batgung are here to help you again, with some recommendations for finding good Chinese food in Hong Kong. We’ll give you some general tips, and then a few specific restaurant recommendations. We’ll be adding to the latter list as time goes by, and hope you will, too.

Finding a decent Chinese restaurant: general tips

Look up! If you restrict your search for restaurants in Hong Kong to street level, you will certainly find things to eat, but you will suffer significant culinary deprivation. That’s because many – maybe most – of Hong Kong’s good Chinese restaurants are not at street level. They’re on higher floors in commercial buildings and shopping malls. And, speaking of malls . . .

Mall food is good food If you’re an American like me, you may blanch instinctively if someone recommends you try a restaurant in a shopping mall. You expect over-decorated ‘atmosphere’ with lowest-common-denominator food. But this rule of thumb has no relevance in Hong Kong. Yes, there are mediocre restaurants in shopping malls here, but there are also lots of good ones.

Hotel food is not cheap food The big-name hotels in Hong Kong all have Chinese restaurants on-site. Most serve high-quality food, but they are expensive.

Show up early – or later As MrB has noted, you can show up anytime from early in the day to lunchtime at Chinese restaurants that serve dimsum. These restaurants typically close in the mid-afternoon, and don’t reopen for dinner till around 6:30 pm. Many – even the good ones – will remain quite empty until 7:00 or 7:30, when the dinner crowd really starts coming in. If you come across a Chinese restaurant here that’s already busy before 7:00 pm, it’s a pretty sure bet.

Don’t worry too much about finding English menus Nearly all Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong’s tourist areas have English menus. What they usually don’t provide in English, however, is a list of their current specials. This is a shame, since that list is often so lengthy and varied it comprises a small menu in itself, and usually features seasonal foods at their peak. You can of course order a perfectly satisfactory meal off the regular menu, but you might want to have a look around you, and see if you can identify any dishes that look particularly yummy that don’t seem to be available on the regular menu. A simple point-and-nod will then be enough to convince your waiter you’d like to try that, too!

Some specific recommendations

Here are some Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong’s tourist areas that we Batgung particularly like, with the region or type of Chinese cuisine they specialize in noted. We'll start with broad introductions to the restaurants, but if you're already too hungry to wait you can skip ahead to the list of addresses.

Maxim Group’s ‘XXXX Garden’ restaurantsMaxim’s group offers very good restaurants covering a whole range of Chinese regional cuisines. They are not especially cheap, but given their generally authentic, high-quality food, you may find it worth spending a bit more for one or two really good Chinese meals.

Lei Garden groupCantoneseSome of the same strengths – very good, reliable food – and weaknesses – quite spendy – as the Maxim’s group. Lei Gardens are often very busy, so booking is recommended.

Kung Tak LamShanghainese vegetarianKung Tak Lam is a very moderately-priced and pleasant chain with a couple of convenient locations. I like the Peking Road one better, as it's got an excellent view and is generally more roomy and relaxed.

The Peking RestaurantBeijing/northernThis long-standing temple to the glories of northern Chinese food features the requisite cranky waiters in white shirts and black ties. Pretty good food, and loads of old-fashioned atmosphere.

The Peking Restaurant is on Nathan Road, near the Jordan MTR station. It’s a bit hard to find. Walk along Nathan Road on the west side of the street, between Austin Road and Jordan Road, look for the sign, then it’s up a red-carpeted stairway.

The Spring DeerBeijing/northernWhat I said about the Peking Restaurant, but with more tourists.

Crystal JadeShanghaineseThis chain of not-quite-fast-food-but-not-really-full-scale-traditional restaurants has been a huge, and much-deserved, hit in Hong Kong. Excellent food at reasonable prices. The only drawback is the long lines that are almost ubiquitous outside these places!

Hak-ka HutHakka (a Chinese ethnic subgroup)Hak-ka Hut combines an interesting and lesser-known Chinese cuisine at quite low prices, and again this chain has been a massive hit.

Here are the above restaurants' branches that are easiest to get to. You can click on a column heading (eg 'Type') to sort the list. Also a couple of abbreviations: 'TST'=Tsim Sha Tsui, and 'CWB'=Causeway Bay.

District

Type

Restaurant

Address

Phone

Admiralty

Beijing

Peking Garden

Pacific Place shopping mall

Admiralty

Shanghai

Shanghai Garden

Hutchison House

Admiralty

Sichuan

Sichuan Garden

Pacific Place shopping mall

Central

Cantonese

Lei Garden

Shop No. 3007-3011, 3/F., International Finance Centre

Central

Cantonese

Tai Woo

92 & 100 Caine Road, Central

Central

Chiu Chow Garden

Chiu Chow Garden

Jardine House

Central

Hunan

Hunan Garden

The Forum tower,Exchange Square

CWB

Beijing

Peking Garden

Lee Theatre Plaza

CWB

Cantonese

Jade Garden

1 Hysan Avenue

CWB

Hakka

Hakka Hut

21/F Lee Theatre Plaza,99 Percival St

CWB

Shanghai

Crystal Jade

Shop B224 (basement),Times Square

2506-0080

CWB

Shanghai vegetarian

Kung Tak Lam

31 Yee Wo Street

Mongkok

Cantonese

Lei Garden

121 Sai Yee Street

2392-5184

TST

Cantonese

Jade Garden

Star House

TST

Beijing

Peking Garden

Star House

TST

Beijing

The Spring Deer

36-44 Mody Road, 1st Floor

2723-3673

TST

Hakka

Hak-ka Hut

6/F, Miramar Shopping Centre, 132 Nathan Road

TST

Northern / Hot-pot

Tai Fung Lau

1/F Windsor Mansion, 29 Chatham Road South

2366-2494

TST

Shanghai

Crystal Jade

3328 Harbour City,Canton Road

2622-2699

TST

Shanghai vegetarian

Kung Tak Lam

7th floor, 1 Peking Road

TST East

Cantonese

Lei Garden

B-2, Houston Centre

2722-1636

Wanchai

Cantonese

Lei Garden

1/F., CNT Tower, 338 Hennessy Road

2892-0333

Wanchai

Cantonese

Tack Hsin

84-86 Morrison Hill Road, Tsung Tsin Mansion

Yau Ma Tei

Beijing

The Peking Restaurant

1/F, 227, Nathan Road

We’ll be adding more to this list, and as always, readers, we welcome your recommendations!

Comments

Another good restaurant at One Peking Rd in Tsim Sha Tsui is Chao Inn, or 'Chiu Lau' in Cantonese. Good food, good view and reasonably priced. Like most Chinese restaurants it's noisy, and best visited in a large group to get plenty of different dishes to try. It gets busy so worth calling ahead to book - ask for a table by the window.

Just re the confirmation: There is indeed a Xiao Nan Guo in Central, I believe the building is called Man Yee. The last I went there was in July, the food was pretty good, and the price was fairly reasonable, but I wouldn't say that the food is exceptional.

By the way, there is a restaurant next to the pedestrian bridge (Shanghai) in the building with Starbucks. I do not recall what it is called, but their xiao long bao is really nice..

Here are the details on some Kitchen reataurants in HK, given to me by an old time Hong Konger. Enjoy!

“The Secret Pantry”

15 St. Francis StreetWan Chai Tel No. 3421 2330

This restaurant specialises in Chiu Chow cuisine. It is hidden at the back of the Wan Chaidistrict, and finding the address is just the beginning! Once you locate the building you go around the back into St. Francis Yard, then turn the corner into Kwong Ming Street. You will then see an open door and the Secret Pantry’s discreet sign. You then ascend candlelit concrete stairs, and sample the set menu which I believe will set you back around $50.00 per person

“Da Ping Huo”

L.G.Floor 49 Hollywood RoadCentralTel No. 2559 1317

This restaurant specialises in fiery Sichuan dishes. It is situated below the well-known “Nove” restaurant in SOHO. There is only a small address over a side street doorway to identify the restaurant. After about 14 courses have been dispatched the chef, Wang Xiaoqiong, who is a classically trained singer, performs traditional Chinese music in the dinning room. In both of these restaurants the waiters speak good English.

“Mum Chau’s Sichuan Kitchen”

5th floor, Winner Building37 D’Aguilar StreetCentralTel No. 8108 8550

This is a less up-market experience, and unlike the other two restaurants that will set you back $50 per head, an evening at Mum Chau’s will cost you around $10 per head!! Once you have located the 5th floor in the Winner Building you walk through a door with a “Member Only” sign, and you magically become a member! You require a little help from one of the staff who speak a little English to know which boxes to tick on the Chinese menu.

“D Corner”

13/Floor, Soho Square, Lyndhurst TerraceCentralTel No. 2869 8266

These restaurants are usually B.Y.O. wine only, but check if you can bring beer

If you read Chinese, I would recommend a site called Openrice, which probably covers 80% of the restaurants in Hong Kong. It is the most popular and largest site of the same kind and has over 100,000 reviews. The reviews are written by regular customers like you and me. It has ratings on food quality, service, price, environment etc.

We took visitors along there last night, and we all enjoyed it. Mr Tall describes it above as "Peking Restaurant, but with more tourists". That's how I remember it too, but last night there were no other foreign faces to be seen, only a couple of small tables with mainland visitors, and mostly full of local families and groups.

We paid under HK$800 for five people. That was for just slightly more food than we could eat, several bottles of beer, and included a peking duck @ $280. Service was good too. We ordered small dishes of everything - don't be tempted to get medium unless there's a big group of you.

Oh, and book a couple of days in advance. We called up the day before and were initially told it was full, but by promising to be there at 6pm they found us a table. By the time we left the place was full (and noisy - don't go there if you're looking for an intimate dinner for two!).

I'd be sure to take a good long look at the menu covers when ordering in a new country as well as talking to friends. You want to be absolutely 100 percent certain you are ordering what you think you are.